KUALA LUMPUR (May 15): Trading in the securities of Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (KL:AIRPORT), or MAHB, whose share price rose to a high of RM10.44 on Monday (May 13), was suspended from 9am to 5pm on Wednesday pending a material announcement.
Its last traded price of RM10.40 on Tuesday exceeded analysts’ consensus target price of RM9.71.
There are nine "buy" calls, eight "holds" and one "sell" rating as per analysts quoted on Bloomberg.
In a filing on Wednesday, the airport operator said that Bursa Malaysia Securities had approved its request for the trading suspension.
The trading halt came on the heel of a report of a plan to privatise MAHB being in the works.
Citing sources, The Edge Malaysia weekly in its April 8-14, 2024 edition said a plan is being hatched by a couple of substantial shareholders of MAHB to privatise the airport operator.
The weekly said that both sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd, which has a 33.24% stake in MAHB, and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), which has 7.04% equity interest, will play key roles in the privatisation, after which a 30% stake in MAHB will be hived off to infrastructure investor Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
While some sources say Khazanah may sell its 33.24% stake in MAHB to the EPF, which will trigger a mandatory general offer, a Khazanah spokesperson denies such a move.